Advanced Neonatal Health Assessment

3 credits · School of Nursing

This core course provides opportunities for NNP students to develop the knowledge and skills needed to perform a comprehensive health and gestational age assessment. Data to collect when eliciting a health history, principles of performing a physical and gestational age assessment, diagnostic study interpretations, and examination techniques are stressed in the didactic portion of the course. Critical thinking is emphasized as the basis for synthesis of knowledge regarding the performance of health histories, physical assessments, and identification of potential diagnostic tests for alterations in clinical findings. Emphasis is placed on the recognition of assessment findings that deviate from normal. This supervised clinical experience will occur in the regular newborn nursery and/or Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Students will have the opportunity to perform health histories, health assessments and gestational age assessments with both normal term and/or late preterm infants who are well and just growing in anticipation of discharge from the hospital. [3]